The commentators 15-10-15

...on politics

Cameron wants to get Britain building houses, he wants to alleviate poverty, and he wants to rebuild the economy – or so he’d have you believe. In the last five years, house-building has stalled, poverty has increased, inequality appears to be rising and the national debt has doubled. At some point, the Tories have to stop blaming Labour for their own disastrous record. Corbyn is now attacking their mythology head-on – and he might just be getting somewhere- Liam Young, The Independent

David Cameron believes that the wrong kind of poverty statistics have certainly encouraged the wrong kind of war on poverty. Freed from coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Tory ministers have embarked upon a massive reform of how Britain measures poverty. The reform is far from a book-keeping exercise. Iain Duncan Smith regards it as one of the most important things he’ll do in politics. By changing the way Whitehall measures poverty he’s aiming to change the way that Whitehall fights poverty, too- Tim Montgomerie, The Times

To listen to Jeremy Corbyn and his hard-Left comrade-in-arms John McDonnell, you would think the British economy was in crisis and that the beastly Tories were about to embark on another phase of extreme austerity. Both suggestions are incorrect. In fact, the British economy is growing quite nicely (touch wood), and far faster than almost every other advanced country in the world- Stephen Glover, Daily Mail

Only by voting to “leave the EU” will Britain open up a real opportunity to negotiate a new deal with Europe. Such a vote would initiate not just a retreat from federalism, but an escape from the perpetual misery that is European policy at present. Rather than hacking through an ancient jungle, negotiators would seek new agreement across a meadow cleared of weeds- Simon Jenkins, The Guardian

Corbyn needs to get to grips with the mainstream media. Shunning Andrew Marr and the Sun is not a strategy that will lead to electoral success.But the Press, too, must rethink. If people are offended by Corbyn's singalong choices or dress sense, it is fair that they are reported. If his oratory leaves something to be desired, it is fair that that, too, is commented upon. But let's get this into perspective. Those are side issues; the first job of the Press is to report the news, so when a new leader makes his first important setpiece speech, it would be good if newspapers told us what he said rather than what they thought- Editor's blog: All singing from the wrong hymn sheet

Comment Awards, 2015

Yomi Adegoke: two nominations

Sathnam Sanghera: four nominations

Thursday 17 September, 2015 The Financial Times and The Times again lead the way in this year's ei Comment Awards, with eleven nominations apiece in the shortlists announced today.Sathnam Sanghera is responsible for four of those Times nominations - featuring in the media commentator, diversity, technology and individual comment piece categories.Freelance Yomi Adegoke who founded Birthday Magazine for black teenage girls, is among four writers shortlisted in two categories - in her case young commentariat and media commentator. George Monbiot of the Guardian completes the media line-up and is also nominated as science commentator and Gillian Tett of the FT is listed in both business and economics.Her colleague Janan Ganesh is shortlisted for political commentator and the big prize - commentariat of the year, where he is up against the two most recent winners David Aaronovitch (also nominated for comment piece of the year) and Caitlin Moran.SubScribe is honoured and surprised to find a place on the individual blogger shortlist, and fully expects to come third behind Barrister Blogger Matthew Scott and Stuart Forster of Go-eat-Do.You can see all the shortlists here.